City of Cincinnati v. Diamond Light Co.

Citations

• 16 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 305
• 30 Ohio Dec. 317
• 1914 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 109

Syllabus

<p>Electric Light Companies — Consent of Municipal Authorities to the Use of Streets and Alleys — Must be Exercised in a Reasonable and Not an Arbitrary Manner — Exclusive Rights and Monopoly in the Lighting Business Not Favored — Mandamus by a Company Denied Use of the Streets Lies, When.</p> <p>While express consent should be secured by an electric light company from the proper municipal authorities before undertaking to lay conduits or string wires in any of the public ways of a municipality, yet if council should unreasonably refuse to grant such permission to a company having permission so to do from the abutting land owners, mandamus or mandatory injunction will lie to require the granting of such consent, to a company duly authorized under the laws of the state, to lay such conduits under reasonable restrictions or in accordance with the provisions of an existing ordinance. Henry v. Cincinnati, 1 C.C.(N.S.), 289, followed in preference to Butler v. Cincinnati, 2 C.C.(Ñ.S.), 376.</p>